Caleb Rother, PhD in Computer Science, 2026
Computers have been a part of my life for nearly as long as I can remember. I hold memories of old flash games as a child, making music with software with a friend, and even now most of my close friends live a long distance away from me, forcing me to use computers for communication. Naturally, around 15, I decided to ask myself, “How do these things work, anyways?” After some time learning to program and whether I liked it, I decided to pursue CS as a major in college at my hometown.
After I got my bachelor’s degree, I had decided that teaching college would be a good career thanks to some tutoring work I had done in my undergrad. I needed a Ph. D. accordingly. When I began applying to schools in my area, Dr. Chen reached out to me and offered me a position in the SnP lab. I ended up taking the offer and have had a fantastic graduate career learning how to conduct research and teach here.
My dissertation is focused on cybersecurity education and how to make it more effective for students, particularly those with little computing background. As hacking and security breaches become more common, I find that it’s critical to teach everyone at least a little about cybersecurity. My goal is to make these things accessible to as many people as possible, and I hope to get even better at it as I wrap up my time here at Tech!
I’d like to thank the graduate school, Dr. Chen, and my fantastic lab mates, Josh and Amir, who have helped me in my time here at tech. I’m looking forward to the completion of my degree, and to continued educational and technical research in the future!